Fool me
by footshooter
Summary: What I reckon mighta been going on in the Doctor's mind towards the end of A Good Man Goes to War. 11's POV with Rory, Amy and River. SPOILERS! for all of S6 etc.


Fool me once…

The Doctor's heart sank as he ordered Rory to stand back. The look on Amy's face made what he was about to do even harder because she was terrified, and in pain, and she needed someone to just _help_. But it wasn't Amy.

And that was against everything he had told her.

She melted into the ground and Rory turned his eyes to the Doctor. They locked together, sorrow and anger combined with fear and sheer devastation.

He ran his hands through his hair before darting back to the console, leaving Rory to stare brokenly at the gunk on the floor and to think about where Amy was, alone and in labour, helpless and screaming for her boys to save her.

The Doctor needed to raise an army. And he needed to do it fast.

Fool me twice…

Comprehension crept up on the Doctor and hit him in the face. Hard. That _woman _was laughing, and it had all been too easy, and they had been right and he had been wrong.

He let them get away.

He felt the familiar sinking sensation in his chest, and another rising in his stomach as anger flooded him. He wanted to shout and scream and spit and _hurt_, but what was the point? Because she was miles away and had taken Melody with her.

Little Melody Pond. All alone in the Universe. Away from her family, and being taught to kill.

He ran, hard and fast, and his lungs felt like they were about to burst but he couldn't stop because if he slowed down for even a second it could all be over.

They hadn't won.

He hadn't won.

He smacked into the glass of the door just in time to hear Amy _screaming _Rory's name, and it stabbed him in the chest and pulled the rest of the breath from his lungs as he clumsily pointed the sonic screwdriver, praying that the door would just _open _for him, so he could be there instead of Rory who was turning from the fight, and when he had become a warrior? He always turned them into soldiers.

He tried not to. And he was shouting that it wasn't real, that they were fighting a losing battle, and Amy's name until the glass was fogged with his breath. But no matter how fast he was, she wanted Rory, and he had already lost to him, no matter what. He always won. He was the Doctor, it was what he did. But Amy had surprised him when she'd chosen Rory, and although he was relieved because he didn't _want_ Amy, he wanted a friend, and he had them now – losing still stung.

He barged through the door and skidded into the room where everything was still.

A heart broke when Rory gave him _that_ look, and told him that they knew. Poor Rory, leading the battle after waiting longer than the Doctor had existed to save his wife who he loved even more than the Doctor did.

When Amy flinched from his embrace and looked at him with accusatory eyes, his other heart shattered, and it didn't reform when she agreed with the Victorian girl that it _wasn't his fault_.

Because it was always his fault, really.

He couldn't feel anything else as he took in the devastation around him. the girl, Lorna; the Sontaran who spoke to Rory – relating more than they should, watching as Rory's eyes welled up and the fight left him because he wasn't a soldier, he _was a nurse_.

Fool no more…

When River appeared too late, the Doctor had nothing left but anger. He raised his voice and stood over her, but she wasn't threatened.

He only felt empty when she shouted at him, when she told him the truth about himself.

But then it changed, and he should have seen it sooner – brain like his. River, Pond. Song, Melody. Little Melody Pond was standing in front of him as River Song, and the cot said it all.

His insides started to fit back together and her smile reached him and filled him up like sunshine would; he basked in it and his bounce came back as he shouted to the others, his eyes not leaving River, and backed into the TARDIS, door slamming shut behind him after laughing and pointing, as she smiled back at him, the pieces fitting together.

Because little Melody Pond was going to be found.

And everything was going to be alright.


End file.
